Tag: upcoming games

Starfield Hype
This week marked the launch of Todd “it just works” Howard/Bethesda’s shiny new RPG, Starfield. Starfield went supernova, instantly becoming the biggest Bethesda launch of all time, and since its release it has hoarded over 6 million players, with over a million concurrent players shooting into the stratosphere when counting over all platforms. With official mod support coming next year, PC players have had the hardest time since release, with Intel and Nvidia systems copping the brunt of the issues. Todd Howard’s response for people with PCs?

“You might need to upgrade your PC.”

Unity, no longer for the gamer
Unity, the game engine behind Rust, Hollow Knight, and Pokémon Go, and the controversial Creative AI Unity Muse and Unity Sentis, has introduced a controversial new fee for developers. The Runtime Fee, set to take effect in 2024, is a per-install fee that will apply to games that reach a previously established annual revenue threshold and a lifetime install count. Indie developers are concerned that this new policy will kill smaller games with the new system severely affecting their bottom line, and leading devs of free-to-play games questioning if they’d end up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars or more under the new system. Unity’s attempts to provide clarity have so far only fueled devs’ frustration and spawned more questions from those with both currently active and in-development games using the engine. This has led to warnings from industry professionals such as creative director at Necrosoft Games, Brandon Sheffield, stating in an op-ed for Insert Credit, “But now I can say, unequivocally, if you’re starting a new game project, do not use Unity,” and “If you started a project 4 months ago, it’s worth switching to something else. Unity is quite simply not a company to be trusted.”
After regrouping on the evening of September 12, Unity clarified their previous statement, claiming that they will only charge for the initial installation of a game, reversing their previous stance that multiple charges would be made for reinstalls. Unity also stated that the fee will only apply to monetized titles and that charity games and bundles are exempt; however, the announcement has raised further questions about the impact on the free-to-play genre, as well as demo installs. Further, concerns remain about how installs will be tracked, with the potential for abuse by bad actors, and devs concerned about the need to implement third party DRM (Digital Rights Management) in their games.

E3 is Dead, Long Live E4?
With the earlier announcement this week that PAX organiser Reedpop and E3 had cut ties, it may come as unsurprising news that E3 2024 is in doubt. The Entertainment Software Association or ESA who runs E3 have also informed the longstanding home of E3, the LA Convention Center, they will not be there in 2024. However, according to news site GamesIndustry.biz they are “working on a complete reinvention of the E3 show for 2025.” We live in hope.

And now for some Gaming Bytes.
About to load up Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC? Best check your system with Lead Scene Programmer CD PROJEKT RED Filip Pierściński imploring gamers via tweet to check system stability and to “please check conditions of your cooling systems in PC.”
And feeling old? Well Steam turned 20 on the 12^th of September , and 25 year old fansite AtariAge has been acquired by Atari.

Now for some upcoming games.
Friday September 15, Baby Shark: Sing & Swim Party comes to Pc, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, and tech themed 3D platformer Boti: Byteland Overclocked comes to PC.
Tuesday September 19, start your week with an open-world high-fantasy strategy RPG Dragonheir: Silent Gods, coming to PC. Or, race to your parking space in You Suck At Parking coming to PS4 and Switch. Can you become a real boy in the Pinocchio soulslike Lies of P, coming to PC, Xbox and PlayStation. And lastly for Tuesday, Mortal Kombat 1 comes to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and Switch.
Wednesday September 20, kick animal butt in the brawler/party game Party Animals, coming to PC, and Xbox. And, put the shooting or spell slinging in the S of FPS in the dark fantasy roguelite shooter Witchfire, coming to PC.
And finally, Thursday September 21^st brings free-to-play medieval warfare PVP Warhaven to PC. Want to release your inner Addams family Thing within to defeat some feet? Then play Super Adventure Hand! coming to PC and Switch. And to finish, Payday 3 is coming to PC and next gen consoles.

Facebook looking to inject Advertisements into Paid Oculus Content.
Earlier this week Facebook announced the integration of paid advertisements into Oculus VR games. This initiative was introduced by Facebook to “explore (sic) new ways for developers to generate revenue”, and hints that the advertisements would be used to assist in subsidising VR products to be ”more accessible” at “consumer-friendly prices”. The Verge also reports that Facebook is searching for new ways to implement these unobtrusive ads and new ad formats, all of which are personalised through the user’s Facebook profile and Oculus store history.
Blastion, the first of the games to publicly have the advertisements implemented, have already announced they will be backing out of the trial. Tommy Palm, Resolution Games CEO announced, “Some good points have been made, and we realize that Blaston isn’t the best fit for this type of advertising test.”

Ireland teams up with Assassins Creed for Gaming Tourism
Historically, games have relied on the experience of seeing real-life locations simulated in games to evoke a response in gamers, yet Tourism Ireland is seeking to reverse this in a post-pandemic world to create gaming tourism. This week Tourism Ireland has teamed up with Ubisoft creating a showcase of in-game Irish locations and their real-life locations from the latest DLC for Assassins Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids. Tourism Ireland has also collaborated with several influencers on Twitch with followers in “key tourism markets, including Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain and the Nordic countries”, all with the aim to “inspire [gamers] to come and explore [the locations] in the real world.”

Xbox Design Lab is Back – but not for Aussies.
With the re-release of Xbox Design Lab gamers in the US, Canada and most Western European Countries can finally customise their controllers. While this does not include the Xbox Elite controller, it does offer 18 different colour options for most parts of the controller, with pre-set options for the menu and ABXY buttons, and the option for a 16-character engraving, all on the newly designed Xbox Series X/S controllers. But be careful with your choices – due to the customisation, refunds are currently unavailable… if we could get them in Australia anyway.

Quick Game Bytes;
GTA Online support for PS3 and Xbox 360 will be shut down on the 16^th of December of this year. In the lead up to the shutdown, purchases of in-game currency for these systems will be no longer be available. However, the next-gen console release has been announced for later this year.
And Overwatch now has cross-play support. Now you can go head-to-head with your friends on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC in Quick Play, Arcade, and Custom matches. Due to the unfair advantage PC players have with a mouse and keyboard, PC players will only be matched with other PC players in Competitive Ranked matches.

And now for some game releases
On the 25^th of June, Mario Golf: Super Rush is coming to Switch. Super Squad, a team based, online multiplayer, top down, shoot-em-up is coming to PC. And Bandai Namco’s RPG, Scarlet Nexus is coming to everything but Switch.
Coming out on the 29^th of June is Curved Space, an arcade, twin-stick shooter on everything but the Switch.
On the 30^th of June the visually unique puzzle platformer, A Tale of Synapse: The Chaos Theories comes to PC and the Switch, and finally Doki Doki Literature Club Plus comes to PC, PS4 and 5, Xbox One and X, and the Switch.